Happy ye whose lot it is to dwell by those banks and to possess Aponus for your own; you no plague of earth, no pestilence-fraught winds of the south, nor Sirius with his cruel fires can harm. Should Lachesis’ fatal thread threaten death men find in thee a more propitious fate. If it chance that noxious humours swell their limbs or that excess of bile inflames their ailing bowels they need not to open their veins nor to cure one wound with another nor yet to drink medicine of bitter herbs. By thy water’s aid they renew their lost strength without suffering; ’mid luxury the sick find relief from pain. XXVII. (XLIV.) _The Phoenix._[92] There is a leafy wood fringed by Ocean’s farthest marge beyond the Indes and the East where Dawn’s panting coursers first seek entrance; it hears the lash close by, what time the watery threshold echoes to the dewy car; and hence comes forth the rosy [92] C. follows Herodotus (ii. 73) fairly closely. * * * * * Page 224 unde rubet ventura dies longeque coruscis 5 nox adflata rotis refugo pallescit amictu: haec fortunatus nimium Titanius ales regna colit solusque plaga defensus iniqua possidet intactas aegris animalibus oras saeva nec humani patitur contagia mundi. 10 par volucer superis, stellas qui vividus aequat durando membrisque terit redeuntibus aevum, non epulis saturare famem, non fontibus ullis adsuetus prohibere sitim; sed purior illum solis fervor alit ventosaque pabula potat 15 Tethyos, innocui carpens alimenta vaporis. arcanum radiant oculi iubar. igneus ora cingit honos. rutilo cognatum vertice sidus attollit cristatus apex tenebrasque serena luce secat. Tyrio pinguntur crura veneno. 20 antevolant Zephyros pinnae, quas caerulus ambit flore color sparsoque super ditescit in auro. Hic neque concepto fetu nec semine surgit, sed pater est prolesque sui nulloque creante emeritos artus fecunda morte reformat 25 et petit alternam totidem per funera vitam. namque ubi mille vias longinqua retorserit aestas, tot ruerint hiemes, totiens ver cursibus actum, quas tulit autumnus, dederit cultoribus umbras: tum multis gravior tandem subiungitur annis 30 lustrorum numero victus: ceu lassa procellis ardua Caucasio nutat de culmine pinus seram ponderibus pronis tractura ruinam; pars cadit adsiduo flatu, pars imbre peresa rumpitur, abripuit partem vitiosa vetustas. 35 * * * * * Page 225